Earth is a planet born of fire.
For billions of years, volcanoes have helped create the world we know. From the continents to the air we breathe and even life itself, all have their origins in fire. These processes have created extraordinary...

Grab your mask and snorkel and come on an unforgettable adventure! Great Barrier Reef captures the natural beauty of the world’s largest living wonder and introduces us to the visionaries and citizen scientists who are helping us better understand this...

Join an immersive IMAX adventure to experience the life-saving superpowers and extraordinary bravery of some of the world's most amazing dogs. No stranger to superheroes himself, Chris Evans narrates this inspiring true story about remarkable (or is that...

The Fleet's newest exhibition, Pause|Play, is an invitation for the young and the young-at-heart to leave the digital world behind, hit pause on their busy lives and recapture the nostalgia of play. Science has shown that play has a number of cognitive,...

As Tim Gunn is fond of saying, “Make. It. Work!” And that’s the idea behind our Make-It Workshop, a creative and interactive workshop for innovators and other curious minds. We invite you to stop by Studio X (formerly Tinkering Studio) on Saturdays to...

Stay and play—and save!—until 10 p.m. on Friday nights this summer!
Bring the entire family to experience the Fleet at night! Enjoy extended evening hours at the Fleet in celebration of The Art of Summer in Balboa Park. Peruse Pause|Play late into...

Grownups! You get the science center all to yourself (no kids allowed!) to explore exhibits at a savings, enjoy an adult beverage and rock out to music on Saturday nights this summer.
Adult Recess provides your chance to take over the Fleet's...

The first Monday of every month, seniors 65 and better can enjoy the Science Center exhibits, a show in the Heikoff Giant Dome Theater and a lecture on the quietest day of the month for only $10! No coupons or additional discounts are accepted. The Fleet...

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Join us on the first Wednesday of each month at 7 p.m. or 8:15 p.m. for a tour of the solar system narrated by the Fleet’s astronomer. Journey through the cosmos with us as we explore a new topic each month.
For optimal viewing, each show is...

Join us on the second weekend of each month to investigate exciting science topics. Sessions will be filled with new challenges, hands-on activities and interaction with local scientists. Throughout the year, we will explore an array of fields including...

Science Experiments With Candy

Halloween has come and gone, and there are bags of leftover candy to prove it. Once you’ve had your fill of the sweet stuff, you can have plenty of fun with the leftover Halloween candy with science experiments! From sorting games with young children to candy chromatography, there is plenty to do with leftover Halloween candy that doesn’t involve consuming all that sugar. An all-time favorite experiment is finding out what happens when you soak gummy candies in water and other liquids. It might be fun to measure and compare different brands and colors, too.

You can start by filling a clear cup with water and dropping a gummy candy in it; you can even have several cups of water available and try different gummy candies in each cup. Make sure you measure and write down initial observations and make predictions about how they will look, taste and even smell. Check back in an hour, a few hours, a day and a couple of days and ask some of these questions: Do your gummies have bubbles on them? Are they larger? Did they change the color or smell of the water? Do they float? Can you see through the gummy candy? How do they feel? Do they bounce?

If you are thinking that water has filled up the gummy candy, then you are absolutely right! Water has entered it, filling in the spaces to make it seem like it grew. Gummy bears and other gummy candies begin their lives as a warm liquid solution of sugars, flavors, gelatin and water. As this solution cools and water is drawn out from the solution, they harden into their famous chewy texture. During the drying process the gelatin intertwines into a solid matrix, but not all the water is removed—otherwise gummy bears would be hard and not at all chewy. Gummy bears contain a small amount of water in them and for purposes of this experiment can be thought of as a solution of water.